1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to stacked patch antennas. More particularly, this invention relates to stacked patch antennas having increased bandwidth.
2. Description of the Background Art
Presently there exist many types of stacked patch antennas. Conventional stacked patch antennas are pin fed and achieve only narrow bandwidths on the order of seven to ten percent. More advanced stacked patch antennas such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,919, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein, are stub tuned and proximity fed to increase their bandwidth over the conventional stacked patch antennas. A typical use for stacked patch antennas is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,304, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference herein
While stub tuned, proximity fed stacked patch antennas have achieved widespread success, there nevertheless presently exists a need for further improved stacked patch antennas having further increase bandwidths that may be economically produced.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide an improvement which overcomes the aforementioned inadequacies of the prior art devices and provides an improvement which is a significant contribution to the advancement of the stacked patch antenna art.
Another object of this invention is to provide a stacked patch antenna having increased bandwidth over convention or other stacked patch antenna designs.
The foregoing has outlined some of the pertinent objects of the invention. These objects should be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the intended invention. Many other beneficial results can be attained by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention within the scope of the disclosure. Accordingly, other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had by referring to the summary of the invention and the detailed description of the preferred embodiment in addition to the scope of the invention defined by the claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.